UPDATE: September 14, 2017
The Cheney Police Department has confirmed Donovan Culps has been arrested. The department released the following statement:
"On September 14, 2017 at approximately, 2:13 p.m. Donovan Culps was taken into custody by members of the multi-jurisdictional Yakima Violent Crime Task Force. He was taken into custody in Klickitat County, in the Goldendale, WA area following a short pursuit ending in a collision. There were no injuries and while Donovan Culps was taken into custody the other occupants of the vehicle fled on foot and have not been identified at this time. Detectives from the Cheney Police Department will be responding to Goldendale to conduct follow up in this case. There are no other details at this time."
The Goldendale Police Department released the following statement:
"This morning the Goldendale Police Department received information that 36-year-old Donavon Culps, wanted for Kidnapping 1st Degree and a Federal warrant, was in the Goldendale area. It was later found that Culps was in an apartment in the 500 block of East Main Street. Culps had been identified as one of the people involved in a kidnapping of a marijuana shop employee in the Cheney, Washington area last Sunday. The employee is still missing.
At about 2pm in the afternoon, Culps was taken into custody after he left an apartment in the 500 block of East Main Street and attempted to elude law enforcement with two other occupants in his vehicle. Culps wrecked his vehicle into a tree about 4 blocks away. Culps and two other occupants in the vehicle attempted to flee the scene, but were captured and detained within a couple blocks. At this time it is unknown if the 2 occupants were involved in the incident in Cheney.
The Goldendale Schools were notified of the situation immediately and decided to go into a lockdown until everybody involved was detained.
The investigation is still ongoing and at this time no other information can be released."
Previous Coverage:
Airway Heights Police confirm that the SUV belonging to a Cheney man who was kidnapped at gunpoint from Lucid pot shop has been found in Airway Heights.
Police and forensics teams are on the scene Tuesday afternoon conducting an investigation.
Airway Heights Police Chief Lee Bennett tells KHQ officers responded to a call around 1:15 p.m. of an abandoned vehicle that may have been in the area since 6 a.m. on Monday. Responding officers ran a check of the registration and found out it belonged to 46-year-old Cameron Smith, who was kidnapped Sunday afternoon.
The investigation is in its preliminary stages, so details are slim, but Chief Bennett says no one was found inside or around the vehicle. The area around the SUV has been closed off while forensics teams and detectives conduct a thorough investigation.
Chief Bennett is urging any witnesses in the area of 12th and Craig Road in Airway Heights who may have seen anything to call law enforcement immediately because any small detail may help the investigation.
On Tuesday afternoon, responding officers were canvassing the area to see if any cameras in the area may have picked up anything of interest.
Later Tuesday afternoon, authorities confirmed that Smith's wallet had also been found. A man found the wallet and called Cheney Police. The wallet was found on Little Falls Road on the Spokane Indian Reservation.
(story and photos: KHQ.com)